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Crypto is for criminals? JPMorgan has been fined $39B and has its own token

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JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon is being hauled over the new coals by the crypto group on X (previously Twitter) after claiming Bitcoin (BTC) and cryptocurrency’s “solely true use case” is to facilitate crime.

“The one true use case for it’s criminals, drug traffickers, cash laundering, tax avoidance,” Dimon stated in a listening to earlier than the US Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and City Affairs on Dec. 5. “If I have been the federal government, I’d shut it down.”

However crypto pundits rapidly identified the hypocrisy in Dimon’s statements, highlighting that JPMorgan is the second-largest penalized financial institution, having paid $39.3 billion in fines throughout 272 violations since 2000, in line with Good Jobs First’s violation tracker.

About $38 billion of those fines got here below Dimon’s watch, who has been CEO since 2005.

“Speak about being a fucking hypocrite!” stated crypto lawyer John Deaton in a Dec. 6 put up on X. 

“Jamie Dimon is in no place to criticize Bitcoin with this kind of monitor report,” stated VanEck technique adviser Gabor Gurbacs, who famous that banks worldwide have paid $380 billion in fines this century.

JPMorgan agreed to a $75 million settlement with the U.S. Virgin Islands in September over allegations that it enabled and financially benefitted from Jeffrey Epstein’s intercourse trafficking operation between 2002 and 2005. Nonetheless, it must be famous that settlements aren’t admissions of guilt.

In October 2013, the financial institution paid $13 billion — the most important high quality in its company historical past — for fraudulently deceptive traders over “poisonous” mortgage offers. Poisonous Investments fall in worth considerably, inflicting the market to break down.

A number of JPMorgan merchants have been additionally investigated for manipulating varied metals futures markets between 2008 and 2016 and agreed to pay almost $1 billion to settle the investigation in September 2020.

Penalties paid by JPMorgan over varied violations. Supply: Good Jobs First

JPMorgan was additionally on the heart of the most important cocaine bust in U.S. historical past when 20 tons of cocaine value $1.3 billion was seized in July 2019 on a ship reportedly owned by a fund run by JPMorgan.

Dimon says he’d shut crypto down, however JPMorgan has its personal token

The JPMorgan CEO stated, “If I used to be the federal government, I’d shut it down,” in a concluding assertion to U.S. Senator Elizabeth Pockets on the listening to, referring to Bitcoin and cryptocurrency.

Nonetheless, regardless of being “deeply opposed” to the digital asset sector, JPMorgan just lately launched its personal crypto token — JPM Coin — on a personal model of the Ethereum blockchain for its institutional shopper base.

The financial institution additionally rolled out a blockchain-based tokenization platform in October, with BlackRock as one in every of its shoppers. It additionally contributed to a $65 million funding spherical for Ethereum infrastructure agency Consensys in April 2021.

Associated: JPMorgan subsidiary Chase UK to limit crypto transactions

Nonetheless, Dimon was seemingly distinguishing between centralized and decentralized cryptocurrencies, as he has beforehand referred to decentralized currencies as Ponzi schemes.

Bankless additionally criticized Dimon’s feedback, explaining that the U.S. authorities can’t impose an efficient ban on Bitcoin or the cryptocurrency sector as a result of its decentralized nature.

Dimon’s feedback triggered a Neighborhood Notes reality test on X, stating that lower than 1% of cryptocurrency transactions are illicit.

Added context to Dimon’s feedback X’s Neighborhood Notes. Supply: X

Journal: Lawmakers’ worry and doubt drives proposed crypto laws in US